and he makes me tenfold more ashamed of those silly and illstarred letters.

"I shall soon have the pleasure to see you, I trust, and remain, dear Lady Bles^ington, ever faithfully yours,

"N. P. Willis."

FREDERICK MANSELL REYNOLDS, ESQ.

This gentleman, the son of a well-known dramatist, owes his principal literary celebrity to a remarkable work, which attracted a good deal of attention a few years ago, entitled "Miserrimus."

Mr. Reynolds was rather an amateur in literature than a professor. In his hands "The Keepsake" made its first appearance—the first and last of the tribe of Annuals—some thirty years ago. He continued to edit -it till the year 1836, when Mrs. Norton became editress. In 1837, Lady E. S. Wortley became editress. For many years, Mr. Reynolds resided on the Continent, and, for some time, in Jersey. He died at Fontainebleau, in 1850. A lady, who was wellacquainted with the friends of Lady Blessington, thus speaks of Mr. Reynolds:—

"He was a man of very kind heart and generous disposition, hospitable, obliging, and very true in his friendship; but extremely eccentric, and especially so during the latter years of his life. His extreme sensibility and nervous susceptibility had so augmented with years and ailments, that he lived latterly with his family, wholly retired from the world. His last illness was long, and of painful suffering. He was very highly educated, and well informed, and had a good knowledge and excellent taste in painting and music, though not a performer in either art. He versified gracefully, but his prose writings partook much, in general, of a forced style, and a fantastic humour. He has left a young wife, who was one of the most perfect models I ever saw of conjugal affection, obedience, attention, patience, and devotion, whom he had known from her childhood, and whose education he had superintended."

PROM P. MANSELL REYNOLDS, ESQ., TO LADY BLESSINGTON.

"Hillan House, St. Helen's, Jersey, March, 1847.

"My Dear Lady Blessington,

"After having so recently seen you, and being so powerfully and so painfully under the influence of a desire never again to place the sea between me and yourself and circle, I feel almost provoked to find how much this place suits me in every physical respect. But truth is truth, and certainly I feel that this place is made for me! for illness has effected greater inroads on my strength, than 'all the doctors in the land' can ever repair.

"You and Count D'Orsay speak kindly and cheerfully to me; but I am une malade imaginaire, for I do not fear death; on the contrary, I rather look to it as my only hope of secure and lasting tranquillity.

"In the lull which has hitherto accompanied my return to this delicious climate, I have had time and opportunity for ample retrospection, and I find that we have both laid in a stock of regard for Count D'Orsay which is immeasurable: anybody so good-natured and so kind-hearted I never before saw; it seems to me that it should be considered an inestimable privilege to live in his society. When you write to me, pray be good enough to acquaint me whether you have been told verbatim what a lady said on the subject; for praise so natural, hearty, and agreeable was never before uttered in a soliloquy, which her speech really was, though I was present at the time.

"At the risk of repeating, I really must tell it to you. After Count D'Orsay's departure from our house, there was a pause, when it was broken, by her exclaiming, ' What a very nice man!' 1 assented in my own mind, but I was pursuing also a chain of thought of my own, and I made no audible reply. Our ruminations then proceeded, when mine were once more interrupted by her saying, ' In fact, he is the nicest man I ever sate.'

"This is a pleasant avowal to me, I thought, but still I could not refrain from admitting that she was right. Then again, for a third time, the mental machinery of both went to work in silence, until that of the lady reached a neplus ultra stage of admiration, and she ejaculated in an ecstasy, 'Indeed he is the nicest man that can possibly be!'

"The progress of this unconsciously expressed panegyric from the modest positive, to the rhapsodical superlative, struck me as being extremely amusing ; and I only now derive pleasure from repeating it to you, because it is literally true, and utterly unembellished by me.

"I have written to Heath on the subject of the 'Royal' Book of Beauty, to endeavour to dissuade him from the use of an epithet so vulgarized, and to induce him to substitute the word 'Regal.' Ever entirely putting aside your association with a title in such bad taste.

"With our kindest and most affectionate regards to yourself and Count D'Orsay, and also to the Miss Powers,

"Believe me, my dear Lady Blessington,

"Always most faithfully yours,

, "Mansell Reynglds."

"St. Helen's, March SO, 1849. "What has been determined with regard to the Annuals! will they be continued? If they be, and you still think that I am capable of rendering you any assistance, it is scarcely necessary for me to state, that I am now, as always, considerably at your service.

"Only the other day I was re-reading one of your last biographies, and I repeat to you, what I previously stated, that the improvement you have made in the art and tone of composition, since I first had the pleasure and honour of becoming acquainted with you, is really wonderful.

"Mansell Reynolds."

187

CHAPTER VII.

THOMAS MOORE, ESQ.

Moore's intimacy with Lord Blessington commenced so early M 1806. His Lordship's taste for private theatricals, and Moore's talent for epilogue writing and lyrical composition, led to their first acquaintance. Moore refers in his diaries to his early theatrical acquaintance with Lord Mountjoy.

In the Dublin " Evening Herald " of August 26, 1806, we find the following account of the theatricals at Lord Mountjoy's residence on the Mountjoy Forest estate, in the county of Tyrone, near Omagh. "Lord Mountjoy has seceded from the Kilkenny theatricals, and has opened a splendid theatre at Omagh. Fuller is acting manager, Mrs. Moore, Mrs. Chalmers, and Mrs. Fullam, are among the actresses."

Moore, in the introduction to Longmans' 8vo. edition of his poems (1840), mentions his schoolmaster, Samuel Whyte, being in request among the fashionables of Dublin and its neighbourhood, as a manager of the private theatricals, and a great encourager of a taste for acting among his pupils.

"In this line," says Moore, " I was long his favourite show scholar;" and among the play-bills embodied in his volume, to illustrate the occasions of his own prologues and epilogues, there is one of a play got up in the year 1790, at Lady Borrowes' private theatricals in Dublin, where, among the items of the evening's entertainment, is " an Epilogue, A Squeeze at St Paul's, Master Moore."

Some curious particulars of Moore's early life were given to me in Wexford, about two years ago, by an old lady, a Miss Mary Doyle, a relative of the poet, then in her seventyeighth year, and now in eternity. Miss Doyle stated, her mother's name was Kate Corrin; she was a first cousin of Tom Moore's mother, who was a Miss Anastasia Codd; her father, Thomas Codd, was in the provision trade, and kept a slaughter-house in the Corn-Market. (The house still exists, aud is now a public-house, called the Ark.)*

Immediately after the marriage of Mr. Moore with Miss Codd, they went to reside in Dublin. Mr. Moore was not a Wexford man. A few years later, Miss Doyle went up from Wexford to live with the Moores, and she lived many years with the[family, about ten or twelve "off and on," upon several occasions. She remembers Tom's bed, when he was a mere boy, being covered with scraps of poetry, pinned on the curtains " all over them." Tom spent very little of his early days in Wexford, but when about the age of twelve years, went down on a visit to Mrs. Scallion, a relation.

Tom's earliest passion was for his cousin, Miss Mary Doyle. He was in the habit of writing verses in praise of her (she was about seventeen years of age at the time); and some of the verses he wrote on her, and addressed to her, were published in some Magazines.

This was the substance of Miss Doyle's statement; and on the next occasion of my visiting Wexford, and calling at her place of residence, with the view of making some further inquiries, I found she had died the day before, namely, on th« 29th of November, 1852.

The lady in whose house she died, Mrs. Mary Frances

* At the death of Thomas Codd, the business was carried on by John Richards; after Richards' death, by his daughter, Mrs. Hanlon, and she was succeeded by the present proprietor, who keeps a small public-house.